Holy See

The big story of the past seven days

✣  pope opens way to recognising sspx marriages what happened? pope francis has made a concession to the society of st pius x (sspx) by...
Staff writers

Study: don’t judge Church schools on free meals

the number of children who receive free school meals (fsm) is a misleading indicator of a school’s socio-economic composition, catholic acad...
Madeleine Teahan

Small drop in number of priests worldwide

the number of priests in the world dropped by 136 during 2015, the vatican has reported. the increased number of priests in african dioceses...
Staff writers

Parents to Pope: help us find our son’s killers

the parents of a student tortured to death in egypt have urged pope francis to take up the case during his forthcoming trip to the country. ...
Staff writers

Papal envoy praises Medjugorje’s ‘climate’

pope francis’s envoy to medjugorje has said that “there is a special spiritual climate” in the town. archbishop henryk hoser of warsaw-praga...
Staff Reporter

News in brief

francis names priest to oversee abuse cases pope francis has named mgr john kennedy as head of the discipline section of the congregation of...
The Catholic Herald

Comments of the week

two encyclicals that changed the world sir – your leading article commemorating the 50th anniversary of populorum progressio (march 31) sugg...
The Catholic Herald

The Mass Henry heard after dispatching More

in the small, dark chapel of a 16th-century country house a priest is saying mass, using the latin rite that in a few years’ time will be a ...
Michael White

Fine art: The Venetian upstart who took on Raphael

the raising of lazarus, painted by sebastiano luciani (1485-1547) – known after 1531 as sebastiano del piombo, when pope clement vii gave hi...
David Scrase

Priests, prisoners and unhappy marriages

the church cannot remain silent by oscar romero, orbis, £14.99 during his time as archbishop of san salvador, oscar romero received a predic...
Jonathan Wright